The Dominion TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1930. A NEW RUSSIAN GAME

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 64, 9 December 1930, Page 10

The Dominion TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1930. A NEW RUSSIAN GAME

As the trial in Moscow of the accused professors and engineers proceeds, it becomes more evident that the tribunal is not so much concerned with its victims as with impressing the Russian masses. These dramatic proceedings under the guise of a court of law represent just one more propagandist device to rally the wavering proletariat, weary and forworn by 12 years of the Communist regime and its poverty and endless privations. Even out of the mouths of the wretched accused are made to issue phrases designed to brace the tottering morale of the people. Ramzin talks of “atonement” for the sin of plotting against the Soviet. Sometimes he feels that it were better to die but at other times he is consumed with longing “to join in the miracles Communism is destined to accomplish.” It is important to note that even the Moscow report allows these miracles to be spoken of as still in the future, still to be worked. Plainly visible as is the hand of the propagandist in the mockpiety attributed to Ramzin, it yet receives its hall-mark in the plea of Sitnin and Kuprianoff “to be allowed to expiate their crime by honest work.” Here is the master stroke, for the great atonement at the high altar of Communism to-day is honest work. It is the only thing that will save the Piatiletka or Five-year Plan from failure and, even given unremitting labour on short rations, it may still fall to the ground for the further lack of skill, organisation and capital. ' Thomas Carlyle used to write of the joy and dignity of labour but his virile preachments lose by comparison with the perfervid exhortations of the high priests of Communism. Work is the great justification. Its efficacy as the first article of the Soviet creed is impressed on the masses by propaganda methods that recall those used for “winning the war”—a phrase much in use in Russia—or in the United States in one of the community campaigns that sweep that continent from time to time. Not content with using the Press, illuminated signs, hoardings, loudspeakers and demagogues, the Soviet even carries the gospel of work into the cinemas and theatres where the urge to labour supersedes the love interest in the plot. Apparently all these pseudo-religious appeals are not sufficient to overcome the weariness of half-fed bodies. The latest idea, therefore, is to make a game of work, to introduce the sporting idea of emulation. One Russian correspondent describes it thus: Groups of crack workers in one or more shops or factories enter into competition for a higher level of productivity and solemnly undertake to work more intensively, to turn out more than the prescribed quota and to produce it at less cost and with a minimum waste of raw material and fuel. These competitions are assuming the character of a football match in England, publicly played and publicly rewarded. The progress of the competitors is announced each day on boards in the shops reported in th; Press, and discussed in numerous “wall news-sheets.” The victorious group or factory gains in most cases, in addition to public approval and praise, rewards and prizes. -,

Excellent as the idea appears, it is not easy to imagine, say, Messrs. Roberts, Bromley and Fraser organising similar “sports” on the Wellington waterside or in workshops and factories. Why should the Soviet make all these spiritual appeals to get work done? It is the old story —the flesh is weak. Insufficient food is still the bugbear in Russia after 12 yean of the glories of Communism. To pay for the capital demanded by the Five-year Plan, it is estimated that half Russia’s annual production (or income) is required. And to realise the Piatiletka, the workers must go short and their women stand daily for hours in queues to obtain the pitifu l rations left over from the machine. The irony of it, and the tragedy, is that the masses are working to replace that very capital s<> wantonly destroyed as the arch-enemy in the revolution. Despite all the propaganda and the travail, the ominous fact remains that the second year’s operation of the Plan has been less successful than that of the first. At present it is touch and go. This last quarter of 1930 is a critical one for the Soviet. Using military metaphors once again, the Communist bosses have called it “the shock period” and the word has gone forth that “Moscow expects every man to do his duty.” But whether it be a game or a duty, hard work on short rations seems to be all the Communists can offer their dupes and slaves.